39.65/42, 

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Bulletin No. 14 November 24, 1920. 
M, M, LEIGHTON 


COMMONWESLTA OF PENNSYLVANIA 


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PEPARTMENT OF INTEANAL AFPPAIRS 
anes F, Woodward, Secretary 


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OR ATT OT OAPUTA ANT. OEATOACTCLT . SITRUTYV 
BUREAU OF TOPOGRAPRIC AND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 


George H. Ashley, State Geolorzist 


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George H, Ashley 


At present we devend alniost entirely on cosl, oil, natural 2as, 
and water for power. Of the 12 million horse-power developed in the 
northeastern district of the United States (New England, New Yorks, 
Wew Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland) about 10 million horse power 
is derived from coal and -two million from water. If all of the water 
power of the northeastern district were fully deveicped, ineluding 
Storage, and the »orovinces of Dntario and Guebec allowed the expor- 
TaGi0n Of one-half of their total of 6 million horse power eac 
Water powers available in the northeastern district would just about 
replace the present horse power developed by steam. AS, however, the 
power requirements of the country have been doubled about-.every 10 
years, by 1°30-we shovld again have to fall back on coal for one-half 
of our power and the proportion would steadily increase thereafter, 
It is therefore of interest to know how our coal is holding out 


! The quantity of coal in the ground can be estimated much more 
aecurately than the cvantity of. oil or ges or any of the minerals. 
Careful estimates by the U. S. Geological Survey indicate that there 
were originally:in the United States about 33 trillion tons of coal, 
of which only a little over onetrillion tons was east of the Miss- 
isSippi River, Of the coal west of the Mississippi River about oneé- 
half is lowervank lignite, which is nearly one-half water. In this 
grand total pennsylvania is estimated to have had 21 billion tons of 
anthracite and 1125 billion tons of bituminous coal, or 3.71 percent 
of the whole. About 6 billion tons of this anthracite have.been 
mined or rendered umiinable, leaving about 15 billion tons available; 
and an equal amount of bituminous coal has been mined or lost, leav- 
ing 1063 billion tons for the future. However, the ficures include 
all of the coal that is likely ever to be mined, much of which is in 
beds too thin to be considered mineable now. Coal mining in Fennsyl- 
vania is mainly in the thick beds, Of 170 million tons of bituminous 


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coal mined annually in recent years in Pennsylvania, about 100 million 
tons has come from the Pittsburgh bed, which is 5 to 9 feet thick. ; 
Estimates by the State Geologist show that about 8 billion tons of coal 
remain in that bed, which, if mined at the rate of 100 million tons 
per year, would Last 80 years. Some of the basins,such as the Greens- 
burg and Uniontown, will last scarcely 25 years. The ret ore although 
the coal in sdacenaeslnibor aes will not all be mined out for several huncred 
years, it may safely be estimated that 100 years will see the end of 
the thick, cheaply mined coai in the State. Pennsylvania will then 
heave to compete with other states which have not been so rapidly using 
up tneir supp Ly Of thick coal. ‘It must be remembered in this connec-~ 
tion, that for many years Pennsylvania produced 2/3 of the coal mined 
in the Unitea States and today produces nearly one-half. 


The total original supply of oil in the United States is esti- 
mated to have been about ¥1 billion barrels, of which we have used 
one-half, leaving 5% billion barrels for the future: Recent esti- 
mates add about 4 billion barrels, not yet in sight, but covering all 
future discaveries of new fields.) 


The production of oil in the United Stetes.for 1920 is now 
Setimavec at 446 million barrels. At thet rate the oil wili be all 
gone in less than 15 years. Actually, we will be pumping oil 100 


years from nov, but if the den ond continues or increas es as seems 
Dizely, an ever, increasing part of our supply must come from other 
countries. [It is probablo that new methods of recove now being used 


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Will greatly increase the anantity of oil, to be obtained from many of 
our fields, anc will correspondingly prolong their life 


It has been urged that the burning of oil under steam-or house-. 
heating boiler: or in house-heating furnaces snould be prohibited; 
and attention is called to the fact that oil-burning marine steam 
enzines are out of date, as shown by the experience of the Bethlehem 
Steel Comoany with sister ore ships “nat ee between Cuba and Sparrows 
Point, Maryland. The Ship squippec with Diesel ‘tyne of internal com- 
buction engines shows greater economy in fuel than the ship burning 
Oil under boilers. 


fimother and as,yet unusec source of oil is the oil shale which 
occurs in great deposits in the western and in some of the eastern 
states Gasoline will not have to go inuch higher before oil from 
Ssnales “conla be distilled sent financial success. .s, according to 
estimates, Colorado and Utah have devosits of oil shale large enough 
to yield 20 billion barrels of re RN and some of the eastern states 
have even more though of a much Lover grade, people ne ed not worry 
about oil- rising in price indefinitely. ilready a number of plants 
are exnerimenting on the production of oil from shale on a comrerciel 
basis. 


Natural eas has been so abundant that it has been used wastefully. 
AS a result the natural gas resources of Pennsylvania, “est Virginia, 
ané Ohio are now on the decline. ‘This fuel doubtless will be reserved 
more and more for household cookinz purvoses anc thererore cannot be 
counted upon ag a future source or power. 


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AS with coal, the most crouse i developed water powers have in the 
main already been ‘develoned, and future water power development will 
be at an ever increasine cost per horse power, 


Although coal will last several hundred years it does not require 
a prophet to see that the time will come when it will be all gone, and 
while the large water powers will meet some of the demand for many 
years to come, they cannot supply all the power needed. Hither our 
use of power must ultimtely slow down to thet suoplicd by water or 
we must find other sources, 


4, brief study shows that the use of wood alcohol or other vege- 
table sources will alw favs be insignificant. ttith cheaper electrical 
Storage the wind may some dav become a large source of powers Tne 
“merican type of Windmill requires about a 20 foot wheel to cevelop 
one horse power in a 15 mile wind, The horse power increases in pro- 
sportion to the area of the wheel and increases very rapidly with the 
increased vehocity of the wind. Some power has been developec in the 
Desc Trom the tides and more may be developed in the future, Power 
from waves is now beings ex} pe rinented with. 2.11 of these neans or 
developing power, however, involve such large outlays of capital as to 
be commercially impracticable under oresent conditions, 

The direct use of the sun's rays is anotner problem. From time 
to time engines run by solar heat have been tried. Ericsson, the 
imvenvor, spent 15 years and $100,000 in a study of the problem. ‘The 
net result of his experiments coupled with our advanced knowledze or 
storage and transmission of electricity, holds out the strong hop 
that eventually we will be able to obtain any amount of power dit 
from the sum, Experiments show that. under = vértical sun without 
clouds, an average of one horse power wer equare yard of the earth's 
Surtace Gan. be develorved for 9yhours a dav, Ericsson's figures i 
Gate that the resinless desert areas of. the earth's surface should be 
adle to Supply the world with hundreds of millions- of horse power, 


Finally there is the possibility of unloosenineg the energy of the 
atoms. then in March 1903, Curie and. Laborde discovered that a gram 


of radium without any combustion emitteé enourh heat to raise its own 
weight of water 100 degrees in an nour, there was onened the eate of 


a new realm. Thompson has calculated th2t a gram of hydrogen has 


Within it enowgh energy if set loose to raise 1 million tons of water 
over 100 yards, and some people have exoressed the notion that after 
we have learned how to obtain the energy locked up in the atoms, some 
fellow some day will lose his control of an atom and blow the whole 
solar system into star dust, 


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